Off with her hair -- for children
DURBAN businesswoman Bhanu Haripersad is prepared to sell her hair to fund the learning experience of a lifetime for a group of South African pupils.
The owner of Kaizen Travel and Tourism has become the first South African to be appointed as an ambassador for the Universal Educational Tours training programme at Nasa’s space camp at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
She plans to take more than 30 academically gifted local pupils to the space cen- tre on a 15-day trip to learn more about space and careers in the field. She is finalising arrangements for the first trip in June — and hopes there will be more.
Haripersad said she was prepared to do a number of stunts to raise funds for the R4.5-million programme.
“I’m going to do parachuting, bungee jumping and will auction off my hair,” she said.
She also plans to auction a limited edition 500ml softdrink bottle honouring US business coach JT Foxx and signed by former American football player Michael Irvin.
Upendra Bhatt, an Alabama-based official space camp ambassador for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida — Haripersad’s counterpart in the US — said the visiting youngsters could look forward to programmes that included simulated space missions, rocket launches and realistic astronaut simulators.
Haripersad said she hoped the programmes would boost South Africa’s pool of youngsters skilled in science, maths and technology.
“There is a desperate need for scientists in our country and on the continent. This opportunity came about af- ter years of negotiations with the Nasa space centre.”
Socialite and events organiser Edith Venter is a sponsor of the programme and described it as “an amazing initiative”.
Elisha Govender, 14, a Grade 10 pupil at Centenary Secondary School in Asherville, Durban, has been selected to attend the programme.
“I am looking forward to it and see it as an opportunity to explore the field of science,” she said.
Haripersad will skydive at the Tala Valley Citrus Estate in Camperdown on Saturday at 11am.